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Scunthorpe steelworks plunged deep into the red and was forced to axe hundreds of jobs after Tata Steel “lost interest” in it, it has been claimed.

In a stark assessment of the failings of the site’s former owners, new boss Roland Junck claims it “got lost” inside Tata’s sprawling empire.

“Scunthorpe was not a business, it was an inward-looking production hub embedded in a large business,” said Mr Junck, a steel industry veteran, in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph. “When we looked at it, it had no strategy, no balance sheet. It was surviving almost day to day.”

Renamed by new owners Greybull, British Steel is on course for a £120m profit. It is also re-employing some of the 1,200 staff...